Susan Rice threatens to run against Susan Collins...

I do need these laughs. I can see Collins shaking in her sexy high heels.....I can see PK saying she Rice lied about Bhenghazi.......I can see the Maine voters......saying.....really? Susan Rice? Oh we will show them.........Rice will make a Steven King novel seem like Mr. Rogers......

(CBS News) WASHINGTON - "CBS News has obtained the CIA talking points given to U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice on Sept. 15 regarding the fatal attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, four days earlier. CBS News correspondent Margaret Brennan says the talking points, which were also given to members of the House intelligence committee, make no reference to terrorism being a likely factor in the assault, which left U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans dead.

Rice, who was considered a likely nominee to replace Hillary Clinton as secretary of state, has been attacked by Republican lawmakers for saying on "Face the Nation" (video) on Sept. 16 that all indications were the attack "began spontaneously" - suggesting it likely sprang from a protest against an anti-Muslim video found on the Internet. Protests of that nature had been seen in other Muslim nations in the days and weeks before the Benghazi attack.

The CIA's talking points read as follows:

"The currently available information suggests that the demonstrations in Benghazi were spontaneously inspired by the protests at the US Embassy in Cairo and evolved into a direct assault against the US diplomatic post in Benghazi and subsequently its annex. There are indications that extremists participated in the violent demonstrations.

This assessment may change as additional information is collected and analyzed and as currently available information continues to be evaluated.

The investigation is on-going, and the US Government is working with Libyan authorities to bring to justice those responsible for the deaths of US citizens."

Who within the Obama administration deleted mention of "terrorism" and "al-Qaeda" from the CIA's talking points on the deadly Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S. mission in Benghazi?

It isn't the only unanswered question in the wake of the tragedy, but it's proven to be one of the most confounding.

Susan Rice fails to satisfy GOP senators' questionsThe question was first raised 12 days ago when former CIA Director General David Petraeus told members of Congress that his original talking points cleared for public dissemination included the likely involvement by terrorists and an al-Qaeda affiliate. Petraeus said somebody removed the references before they were used to inform the public.

The Obama administration has declined to directly answer who made the edits. And the nation's top intelligence officials appear either confused or not forthcoming about the journey their own intelligence took.

On Fri. Nov. 16, Petraeus told members of Congress that it wasn't the CIA that changed the talking points.

The White House and the State Department said it wasn't them.

The CIA then told CBS News that the edits were made at a "senior level in the interagency process." Intelligence officials said the references were dropped so as not to tip off al Qaeda as to what the U.S. knew, and to protect sources and methods.

Soon thereafter, another reason was given. A source from the Office of the Director for National Intelligence (ODNI) told CBS News' Margaret Brennan that ODNI made the edits as part of the interagency process because the links to al Qaeda were deemed too "tenuous" to make public.

On Tuesday, Acting CIA Director Mike Morell provided yet another account. In a meeting with Republican Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., Morell stated that he believed it was the FBI that removed the references. He said the FBI did so "to prevent compromising an ongoing criminal investigation."

"We were surprised by this revelation and the reasoning behind it," wrote the senators in a joint statement Tuesday.

But it was just a matter of hours before there was yet another revision. A CIA official contacted Graham and stated that Morell "misspoke" in the earlier meeting and that it was, in fact, the CIA, not the FBI, that deleted the al Qaeda references. "They were unable to give a reason as to why," stated Graham.

Speaking on CBS' "Face the Nation" on behalf of the White House five days after the attacks, U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice did not directly say an al Qaeda affiliate was suspected or point to terrorism. She said the "assessment at present" was that the attacks began "spontaneously" in response to an inflammatory anti-Islam video posted on YouTube. She added that "extremist elements" then joined the effort.

Tuesday, for the first time, Rice stated outright that there was never any protest or demonstration. Republicans who have read the same intelligence that Rice accessed say it's laced with references to al Qaeda and terrorism, and they're mystified as how she could have come away with a primary narrative about a spontaneous protest and a video.

McCain and Graham have accused the Obama administration of pushing a false narrative in advance of the election because President Obama had claimed that al Qaeda had been decimated; the thinking is that a terror attack killing four Americans on what is technically U.S. soil overseas -- not to mention the first killing of a U.S. ambassador in over 30 years -- could have proven politically difficult for Mr. Obama.

Republicans are not satisfied and want to know why Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also seemed to embrace the video storyline, relying on evidence that proved far more tenuous than the links to terror. The father of Benghazi victim Tyrone Woods has said that Clinton made no mention of the terrorists who killed his son, but told him the U.S. would "make sure that the person who made that [YouTube video] is arrested and prosecuted."

"We respectfully disagree with the White House's statement today that 'there are no unanswered questions' about Ambassador Rice's September 16 Sunday show appearances and the talking points she used," wrote McCain, Graham and Ayotte on Tuesday. They also renewed their request for Mr. Obama to respond to more than a dozen letters they've written to him asking for information regarding the Sept. 11 attacks in Libya.

Oh, Good God! Are ya'll still talking about Benghazi? As someone once said: "at this point, what difference does it make"?

2seaoat wrote:I do need these laughs. I can see Collins shaking in her sexy high heels.....I can see PK saying she Rice lied about Bhenghazi.......I can see the Maine voters......saying.....really? Susan Rice? Oh we will show them.........Rice will make a Steven King novel seem like Mr. Rogers......

Is Susan Rice even a resident of Maine? I thought she was a DC denizen ... or in other words, a swamp creature.

Looking it up I see her mother is from there, but she is not really herself. I'm not so sure owning a summer home qualifies one as a "Mainer"

I don't know a whole lot about Maine but have known a few folk from there. I'm thinking Susan Rice might play well in and around Portland, but perhaps not so much the rest of the State where people might prefer an actual "Mainer"

After years of me challenging you on this absurdity, I only have one question. Where were the words terrorist deleted. By whom. Also, the President most certainly announced that it was a terrorist attack Sunday in the rose garden....I listened to it live, and being that I am not a special needs student, I understood the plain meaning of what the President said. I understand your need to represent the special need folks who rode the little bus understand terrorist because the word might be too complex......but then in the same flawed logic you jump to the video protestors and assume that those individuals were not involved in the terrorist attack......when the CIA reports to committees....Plural showed that in fact they joined in the carnage at the embassy. Silly propaganda, just as bad as a man drinking beer is evil.

After years of me challenging you on this absurdity, I only have one question. Where were the words terrorist deleted. By whom. Also, the President most certainly announced that it was a terrorist attack Sunday in the rose garden....I listened to it live, and being that I am not a special needs student, I understood the plain meaning of what the President said. I understand your need to represent the special need folks who rode the little bus understand terrorist because the word might be too complex......but then in the same flawed logic you jump to the video protestors and assume that those individuals were not involved in the terrorist attack......when the CIA reports to committees....Plural showed that in fact they joined in the carnage at the embassy. Silly propaganda, just as bad as a man drinking beer is evil.

You're willing to drink the leftist cool aid about that whole fiasco... right before an election.

The talkingpoints were changed... and the only explanation ever given was that it was an "interdepartmental intelligence official". That from the most transparent and scandal free admin in history.

Gawd you're easy. And as for obama in the rose garden... he made a passing reference to 911.

Just so a lapdog like you could carry water for him. I'm sure he appreciated it... lol. Sucker.

Whoever runs against Collins will have a nest egg of campaign cash. The Maine People's Alliance launched a crowd funding site to be used to defeat Collins in 2020. The site crashed due to so many people trying to donate while Collins was giving her speech.

They will lose. Just like they lost this vote. You see the problem with democrats right now is how are they going to bring back males to the Democratic Party? They sure did not succeed with this strategy as people see screeching females who think this hearing was about thirty year old irrelevant and non probative evidence which they elevated to some kind of cause. Women are already fired up to defeat Trump.......my wife is already checking out early voting. There was NO gain among woman after this chit show, and the Democratic once again chased males out of the party.

Susan Collins is a courageous woman who I would like her to challenge trump for the Republican Primary. The Dixiecrats and haters would never vote for a woman, let alone in the tradition of Chamberlin, a damn yankee. I think she could win. Women who are fair,